What's Happening in Community Three

Think, Innovate, Create

What's Happening in Community Three

Think, Innovate, Create

September 30, 2016

What's new?

Spirit Week at PRS has been a blast! Learners and Lead Learners alike have enjoyed dressing up with silly hats and socks, crazy hair-dos, team colors, camo, and in our tackiest combinations. Walking through the halls in C3, we saw everything from a lego man surfing on a wave in a friend's hair to Pippi Longstocking pigtails, accessories galore, plaids mixed with polka dots and mismatched socks and shoes, a lot of Alabama crimson and a ton of Auburn blue - even a bright orange Tennessee jacket! Our learners are a fun, creative crew, and this week was an adventure each day. Monday concludes our dress-up days with Patriot Day. Encourage your learners to wear their Patriot t-shirts that day.

"Tacky Day"

We love when our friends support the same team!

"Team Colors Day"

"Tacky Day"

We love when our friends support the same team!

"Team Colors Day"

Math fun

This week in math, your child has been focusing on strategies to use to help solve multiplication problems. These include arrays, equal groups, repeated addition, and skip counting. They have discovered that the first factor in a multiplication problem tells how many equal groups there are, and the second factor tells how many objects are in each group. Learners have also been learning that multiplication is a comparison. For example, 20 is 5 times as many as 4 and 4 times as many as 5. In the next couple of weeks, our classes will be building on this by learning about how to apply properties of operations to multiply. These include the Commutative Property, Associative Property, and Distributive Property. Learners will also be developing an understanding of how division and multiplication are related. As each new standard is being taught, your child's Math FreshGrade page is updated. The new standard is listed, and there are resources tagged underneath to help you know exactly what the standard means and to provide ideas for practice. Information will be coming in the next week regarding Multiplication Sundaes. This is great motivation for learners to develop automaticity with their multiplication facts!

How to help your learner at home:

Please help your child practice his/her multiplication facts nightly. When you are doing drills to memorize, explain to your child that the goal is to memorize the facts (to recall from memory). While learners initially use strategies like skip counting to solve multiplication problems, automaticity is needed for them to be able to use multiplication effectively as so many skills build upon it.. Just like your child probably has memorized your address and phone number, now he/she should memorize multiplication facts. You can easily see if the student is trying to count because producing the answer takes much more time. You should expect the answers from the child immediately when you are drilling. If he/she doesn't know the answer readily, then tell him/her the right answer.

Usually short drill sessions are best. You can drill for 5-8 minutes a night, depending on the child.

Flashcards are a wonderful resource and can be made rather inexpensively. In addition, there are many websites and apps that offer drills, games, strategies, and activities to help students learn their facts. A quick search of google will help you find what suits your child's needs. See below for a few examples.

And breaking it apart into smaller arrays to simplify multiplying

Learning about the Distributive Property

Creating an array with manipulatives

And breaking it apart into smaller arrays to simplify multiplying

Using Multiplication to determine the size of tables needed

Multiplicative comparisons help us determine the size of objects that are 2 times (or 3 times, 4 times, etc) as large as another item.

Working together to design a classroom where they will go

Using Multiplication to determine the size of tables needed

Multiplicative comparisons help us determine the size of objects that are 2 times (or 3 times, 4 times, etc) as large as another item.

Working together to design a classroom where they will go

Literacy Corner

C3 learners have been busy diving into play scripts! Since we are all very excited about the upcoming field trip to the Shakespeare Festival where we will watch the play “Charlotte’s Web”, learners have been busy analyzing how a play is set up in comparison to a book. We have learned that plays are broken into scenes and acts compared to books that are broken into chapters. The plays that the learners are reading have been fables and fairytales which all include a moral. We have discussed how these morals are not explicitly stated in the text; however, we can determine the morals by paying close attention to the character development, or growth, throughout a story. Learners will continue their learning and assessment of morals throughout the year.

Project time

C -3 is very happy to announce that we are now 100% in project mode. With this Outdoor Classroom, we are providing a place for our learners to explore fruits and vegetables, our surroundings and helping others. This project has incredible potential to enhance our academic curriculum and learning culture. We believe that gardening opens the door to discover the living world around us. This garden will require a learner’s intellectual, emotional, and social engagement with things that must be measured, counted, weighed, arranged, planned and nurtured.

We are in need of a few supplies to continue to make our garden successful: newspaper, cardboard, garden tools and 12 wooden pallets.

Please be on the lookout for your child’s project journal to come home bi-weekly (same week as S’more). We would like for you to look through and encourage discussion with your learner about each benchmark reached. Sign and return in the front cover (pink sheet) stating you have seen and discussed these exciting things. The benchmarks will be posted in your child’s project journal for you to review. You are welcome to contact Mrs. Dickerson or Mrs. Franco with any questions.

Thank you for the donations of blocks and money towards our garden. A huge thank you to Froggy Bottom, Bonnie Plant Farm and Montgomery Landscape Contractors for getting our project off to a great start.

Mrs. Kim Harruff from Bonnie Plant Farm

Thank you Mrs. Kim Harruff from Bonnie for speaking to all of our learners about our Cabbage Garden and how to make it a success.

Surveying and discussing our Cabbage Garden site

Mrs. Kim Harruff from Bonnie Plant Farm

Thank you Mrs. Kim Harruff from Bonnie for speaking to all of our learners about our Cabbage Garden and how to make it a success.

Surveying and discussing our Cabbage Garden site

Measuring for our Garden

How large will the perimeter be?

We appreciate all of the donations!

How big will the gardens be?

What will be the area of each one?

Measuring for our Garden

How large will the perimeter be?

We appreciate all of the donations!

How big will the gardens be?

What will be the area of each one?

FreshGrade ALERT!

PARENTS!

By now you should have received access to your child's FreshGrade account. If you have not received access, please contact your child's homeroom teacher, and she will be able to assist you. With this being said, your child will be learning how to upload his or her own work to FreshGrade.... PLEASE be patient with us as this may take some time. We try to assess and mark the mastery scale quickly, but there may be a short lag time between our marks and your child's artifact upload.

Since FreshGrade looks a little differently this year, here are the marks you may see on your child's portfolio.

Tacky Day

Favorite team Day!

Tacky Day

Favorite team Day!

Latest from the Lunchroom

Upcoming Dates

Monday, Oct 3

6:00 MS Football vs. Montgomery Academy

Tuesday, Oct 4

8:15 PTSA Board Meeting

5:00 Volleyball @ Auburn

6:00 PRS School Board Meeting

Wednesday , Oct 5

Make Up Picture Day

8:30 C3 POP

4:30 Volleyball @ Southside Middle School

Thursday, Oct 6

1:00-6:00 Cookie Dough Distribution

Monday, Oct 10

Parent Conferences (No School) Your lead learner will communicate conferences that are needed. This may be in the form of a phone conference or a meeting at the school.

News from the PTSA

We encourage ALL of our parents to join the PTSA! Each Lead Learner has joined already. Invite grandparents, neighbors, and community members to join and support PRS. The PTSA does a great deal of fantastic things for our school.